it is a remarkable spot in this remarkable city, boston strong, a look at the memorial. that does it for this edition of "360" from boston. "early start" begins now. it just hit another house. gosh dang it. son of a gun, we'll have to check on those people. >> breaking news. massive deadly tornadoes overnight. at least six people dead in texas, 14 people still missing, and fears that the death toll could go up. we are live on the ground there. meanwhile, damage control, the white house tries to take control of the irs scandal sending the head of the agency packing. >> especially cruel, a jury finds jodi arias eligible for

the death penalty in the gruesome murder of her ex-boyfriend. will she get life or will she get death? >> good morning, everyone, welcome to "early start." a lot of news when you were sleeping. >> may 16th, 5:00 a.m. in the east. we begin with breaking news this morning. dangerous deadly storms overnight killing at least six people. and right now, the search is on for 14 people who are missing and the fear that the death toll could go up. terrifying funnel clouds bearing down the hardest hit area is granbury, texas. six people were killed in a habitat for humanity neighborhood. most of the 120 homes there were destroyed, more than 100 others are injured. victor blackwell live in granbury for us. what is the latest there? >> there is a rescue task force coming in from dallas now to search for these 14 unaccounted for people. we're told that the six people that you mentioned who were killed, two of them were found

so far from homes that they're now expanding the search area. not just to the central area of an area called rancho brazos, but also to pastures and forests. i want to show you this, we're seeing this kind of damage all over this area of granbury. huge limb down from a pecan tree. there's insulation in the branches. now, is it from a home or a business? no one knows because debris like this is scrambled all over. now, when the sun comes up, we will see the worst of it. we're told that there is a mobile home in the middle of a street, homes flattened. the deputies here have blocked off those areas because they want to control the search and also they want to make sure that people who are coming in to just see the damage are safe. now, when this happened at about 8:00 local time, 9:00 p.m. eastern yesterday, we're told that this was a monster. national weather service has storm spotters estimated it was

a mile wide at some points. there was so warning, sirens went off here, there was a reverse 911 call because the storm passing through was capable of producing a tornado. but when it happened, out of nowhere, people say this was dangerous. listen. >> well, the rain -- the hail started and that was probably ten minutes worth. and then the tornado just started going in circles and it probably lasted ten, 15 minutes at the most. >> the only place in our house that was thick enough was our hallway and i grabbed a mattress and, you know, i -- there's just nothing left. i'm sorry. there's nothing left. >> and lots of people have that story. i'm standing right behind a church and they say when the storm came in, they could see things swirling in the air. got under the desks and prayed and sang and everyone here

survived that storm. >> my goodness, those pictures are just incredible, victor. we went in the story saying six people are dead 14 others are missing right now. i understand, there are many people hospitalized, as well. where are they staying? >> there are still more than a dozen people with serious injuries at a local hospital here. there are other people at a hospital in ft. worth. as far as the evacuees, we're told 250 people came out of this neighborhood, 90 of them by buses, some of them are at a red cross safe zone, some of them are with family and friends. we also know that many of them are at local hotels just trying to find some place to stay until the sun comes up and they can see the real damage caused by this tornado. zoraida. >> i know you're working hard for us on the ground there and we're going to check back in with you often this morning. thank you very much. >> as the sun does come up, we'll learn so much more information there. right now, we want to find out where the storms might be headed next. let's go to jennifer delgado in

atlanta. >> good morning, guys. yeah, we are still tracking severe weather across parts of texas. we have a severe thunderstorm watch in place until 6:00 a.m. local time. you can still see, we have stronger pockets moving through huntington as well as west livingston. of course we're going to continue to see the storms weakening. but still, right now, we are looking at a lot of lightning out there. there's still that danger. and that's why we do have that severe watch in place for some of these areas you're seeing, especially to the south of interstate 30. now, as we take you back in time, we want to kind of pinpoint the reported areas of tornadoes. you can see just to the west and then as we put this into motion and we also talk about the one that's right on top of sunset. and this we go over towards the east. keep in mind, we're thinking there are three reported tornadoes. the one in granbury, texas, of course where victor's reporting where we have the multiple fatalities as well as the injury. that is the one we're really

watching. in fact, we have some video that comes out of cloou burn, and we want to show you how these tornadoes come through in the late hours and look at how large this one. this one is actually a classic wedge tornado. you can also see it's rain wrapped. and when it's rain wrapped, makes it even harder for residents to actually see those storms and actually that funnel cloud lowering, and for this time of the year, we typically see the most tornadoes in the month of may roughly right around 300, but so far, guys, because it has been so cold, it's really limited the number of severe storms producing tornadoes over the last couple of weeks. >> jennifer, one question for you. do you know if they had good warning there. i know we heard the sirens headed into this. was it a good warning? good amount of time? >> national weather service, they go out and put out the warnings and i hope that people really were paying attention, especially to the local weather authorities there, as well, but, of course, you always want to make sure you have the noaa radio, because that can make the

difference, especially in the nighttime where these storms produce, the tornadoes in areas across the south. >> jennifer, thank you for that. going to move to the storm clouds over the white house. overnight, the administration shifted into damage control hyperdrive. sudden moves within hours of each other. first, to try to calm the controversy over the targeting of conservative political groups by the irs. president obama has now forced the agency's acting commissioner out. for more now, let's go to dan lothian. >> reporter: trying to step out of a political sink hole, president obama expressed anger at misconduct within the irs. >> it's inexcusable and americans are right to be angry about it and i am angry about it. i will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency. >> the agency's acting commissioner steve miller was asked to resign and president obama vowed to put in place new safeguards and work with congressional investigators. >> i'll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like

this happens again. >> but this scandal threatens to run much deeper, the justice department has launched a criminal investigation and attorney general eric holder was on the hot seat wednesday pressed for answers by the house judiciary committee. >> i would strongly encourage this administration to get out front, get all the facts out, let the chips fall where they may. >> the irs scandal has drawn bipartisan outrage, but some top republicans already seem convinced laws were broken. >> my question isn't about who's going to resign, my question is, who's going to jail over this scandal? >> this is a white house under siege from the irs case to the "a.p." phone records probe, to benghazi, all threatened to overshadow the second term agenda. the white house released 100 pages of e-mails wednesday as first reported by cnn's jake tapper. it's part of an effort to prove politics played no role in crafting the so-called talking

points that followed the deadly attacks in libya. but republicans are seizing on all these scandals, releasing this tough new video using the president's own words. >> the way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. >> white house spokesman jay carney battered in briefings all week insisted the president has set a high standard and won't tolerate anything less. >> he wants and instructs everyone who works in the government. whether they work for him or are civil servants to hold themselves to that standard. and when he finds out there have been failures, he acts on it. >> cnn, the white house. >> so you saw that hearing with eric holder. there were some moments of levity during the hearing thanks to a 19-month-old baby. take a look at mel watt. he had some babysitting duties. look at that. that's his grandson niko sitting on his lap. you don't see this in congress very often.

he was on really good behavior for a while. but there's only so much blah blah blah a toddler can take. >> many of the steals are increasingly made over the internet where criminals are -- can hide their identities. >> don't take him away from grandpa, are you kidding me? where criminals can hide the identities and elude capture. >> obviously, he was thinking what so many of us were, that these hearings are really dull. get me out of here. >> i love that. >> that kid was brave. >> the congressman had the babysitting duties because his wife and daughter-in-law were having lunch with the first lady. >> perfectly reasonable. >> being a good grand dad. >> the attorney general seemed grateful for the mood breaker. >> you're only supposed to do that at your confirmation hearing, that's when you roll out the kids. >> i'm just trying to get my

line of question. i've been in the back listening and niko says you've done a good job up until this point. >> niko for congress. congressman watts says he's received some ugly calls claiming that his presence demeaned the hearing. his response was, you do what you have to do. >> big kudos to him. i love that story. 11 minutes past the hour. the penalty phase of the jodi arias murder trial gets underway today. on wednesday, the jury decided the murder of arias' former boyfriend travis alexander was cruel and making her eligible for the death penalty. the defense must now try to convince that jury to spare her life. casey wian is live in phoenix for us. this is talk that she wanted. the death penalty. >> reporter: well, she's one step closer to getting it, zoraida, the aggravating factor

phase of the trial went rather quickly yesterday and prosecutors were able to persuade the jury that her former boyfriend, victim, felt excruciating pain and fear. >> we do swear in the above entitled action do find that the aggravating factor, especially cruel, has been proven. >> jodi arias sat solemnly as the jury decided she is eligible for a death sentence. that after a mini trial known as the aggravated factor phase of a process that will determine arias' sentence. even before prosecutor juan martinez called his first witness, the county medical examiner, family and friends of victim travis alexander fought back tears in anticipation of what was to come. martinez displayed graphic images of alexander's body on giant screens envelopining the courtroom. a stab wound that produced a

gusher of blood and several to the head that dented his skull. >> she made sure she killed him by stabbing him over and over and over again and then finishing him off. >> then came the most horrific image, a gaping wound to alexander's throat, sliced open nearly ear to ear. it remained on the screens for what seemed like an eternity. as many in court, alexander's sisters, arias herself and jurors averted their eyes. argued that alexander's murder was cruel, a requirement for the death penalty in arizona. >> you can imagine the absolute terror as he's sitting there defenseless, water coming down. that is extreme emotional anguish. >> he also asked the jury to sit in silence for two full minutes, the time he contends it took alexander to die.

arias' defense team said that was an exaggeration and argued that as alexander fought for his life adrenaline and rapid blood loss could've reduced his suffering. >> and the doctor testified moments ago told you that the adrenaline does, in fact, prevent the body from experiencing the pain. >> jurors rejected that argument and now will decide whether or not there are enough mitigating factors to spare jodi arias' life. >> reporter: they are expected to take the stand and deliver their victim paimpact statement. and we're expecting to hear from a childhood friend of jodi arias, also an ex-boyfriend of hers trying to persuade the jury they should spare her life, zoraida. >> the big question is, will jodi arias take the stand? >> we don't know that for sure. but if she wants to show she has any remorse and show she will

apologize to the alexander family, this is her last opportunity to do that. so we certainly expect it will happen. >> all right. live for us this morning. thank you. other legal news this morning, the widow of tamerlan tsarnaev is not off the hook. catherine russell continues to meet with investigators as the fbi tries to piece together every moment of tamerlan tsarnaev's life, where he went, whom he met with, and also looking at the couple's finances. the stakes are high for russell to remain out of prison. they have a 3-year-old daughter. what can go up, goes higher. there was no winner in last night's drawing worth $360 million. are you grinning from ear to ear? that means the jackpot for saturday's drawing will be an estimated $475 million, maybe even more. add that to the rival megamillions which is expected to swell past $200 million for tomorrow night's drawing.

the dueling lotteries could make some players very, very rich. >> it might be a better deal, it only costs $1. >> i think we're going to make some serious investment in this, don't you think? >> i think we're going to win. y'all are going to finish second place. >> i get excited about these even though the chases are -- >> yeah. they're smaller than that. o.j. simpson on the witness stand. why he says he deserves a new trial. and why he was so jovial in court. and we have new information in that new orleans mother's day shooting. this morning, a suspect is in custody. the details straight ahead. lwayo when he retires -- keep working, but for himself. so as his financial advisor, i took a look at everything he has. the 401(k). insurance policies. even money he's invested elsewhere. we're building a retirement plan to help him launch a second career. dave's flight school. go dave. when people talk, great things can happen. so start a conversation with an advisor who's fully invested in you. wells fargo advisors.

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welcome back to "early start," we're updates you on severe storms in texas. rescue crews are looking for missing people right now. after possible tornadoes touched down in north texas. take a look at that. the hardest hit area is granbury, texas. the hood county sheriff says six people were killed in one neighborhood alone. most of the homes there were destroyed. and emergency medical provider says at least 100 people were injured, 14 others are still mit missing. we're going to get you a live report shortly. >> as the sun comes up, we will learn so much more. stay with us. this information true -- >> remember what victor blackwell was saying, they're looking at a wider swath because

they're found people so far away from where their homes were. meanwhile, other news, o.j. simpson has become synonymous with legal drama. but even with all the history, this is a first. he's never testified in any of his criminal cases until now. simpson taking the stand in las vegas trying to get a new trial for his armed robbery conviction four years ago. and, man, was it a spectacle. the aging inmate told the court he got a raw deal due to legal misrepresentation. good morning, paul. >> reporter: good morning, john. o.j. after sitting in prison for 4 1/2 years finally got his turn and everybody else in the courtroom got an earful. >> reporter: more than 4 1/2 years after being sentenced, o.j. simpson testified for the first time in a bid to win a new trial with only one arm free to gesture. the disgraced former football star said he repeatedly told his then lawyer about plans to

confront memorabilia dealers to get back momentos. >> the overall advice he gave me was you have a right to get your stuff. he gave me an example. that if you were walking down the street and you saw your laptop with your name on it in a car, you can use the force to break the window of the car to get the laptop. he told not only then but even the night before that i couldn't go in a person's dwelling because that would be trespassing. >> does the plan that you have to retrieve your property evolve based on his advice to you? >> yes. >> and you talked to him how many times do you think? >> four, five, six? >> o.j. reasserted he wanted no guns involved when he led the raid. >> did that plan involve a discussion of using any weapons? >> never no weapons. weapons was never an issue. >> simpson was at times jovial.

the former actor said following his arrest he constantly assured him he would not be convicted of armed robbery, kidnapping and assault for his role in the confrontation. >> relax, relax, o.j., i got it. i'll take care of this, i got it. you're not going to be convicted. >> and did you trust mr. galanter? >> yes. >> did you believe he would get you out of it? >> i believe i was innocent, yeah. >> simpson also said he failed to properly inform him of a prosecution plea deal offer. >> reporter: and court documents show that the prosecution, which is not talking outside of court simply says that the plea deal offer and whether or not to testify are ultimately up to the defendant, john. >> all right, paul vercammen in las vegas, not over yet. a suspect in custody. new orleans police arresting

19-year-old scott last night in connection with the mother's day shooting. three of the injured are still in critical condition. coming up on "early start," the latest on those tornadoes that tore through north texas killing six people, injuring more than 100. the search is on, developing at this moment for 14 people still missing. plus, one high after another after another. wall street breaking all sorts of records as stocks like google hit more than $900 per share. >> that's a lot. >> we're minding your business coming up next. [ male announcer ] someone said that it couldn't be done.

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with olay. minding your business this morning. just when you thought it couldn't gfurther, the record setting run on wall street continues. >> we've been watching the dow and s&p 500 hit all-time highs. add one more record to the list. our christine romans has the details. >> the dow, s&p 500, and google. google shares topping $900 a share for the first time. google is a widely held tech stock. if you have this in your portfolio, you know it is up 50% in just the past year. it has doubled in value over the past three years, and that happened before the lights even came up on google's annual developers conference in california. it debuted a new music sharing system among other things. overall, the dow's 20th record high close this year. and the s&p 500 climbed further

past 1,600.bottom. i want to show you what stocks have done. they have surged with some pullbacks, but mostly a steady march higher and the s&p 500 is up 145%, making this the fifth strongest bull market since the 1920s. and some of those bull markets since the 1920s have gone up, 200, 300, 400, 500%. the bulls say there's further for this to go. i'll be watching cisco shares up nearly 8%. cisco reported strong profit and revenue. the ceo says he's seeing some good signs in the u.s. and other parts of the world. that's really important because europe has been in crisis. europe, i mean, france is now in recession, germany just holding on the euro zone. when you hear somebody like the cisco ceo saying he is seeing strength around the world. that's a good thing. also, i'm listening to speeches today, the tone will be set by the federal reserve officials. we want signals about how and

when the fed will unwind epic support for the economy. we'll also hear today, jobless claims, are the layoffs still slowing? we'll get housing news. futures a little bit lower this morning. i'm telling you, there's no way to know how we close today if we hit another record. there's so much brand new information that will be coming in on the economy today. >> thank you, christine. >> you're welcome. coming up, details from inside the house where three women were held captive for nearly a decade. how ariel castro allegedly singled out one of his victims for extra cruelty. oh no! my mom just cleaned this place! calm down, squishy, this'll be easy to clean. [ female announcer ] swiffer wetjet pads have the scrubbing power of mr. clean magic eraser. they trap and lock away even monstrous messes to make tough cleaning a breeze. now that's clean. wow. scottie! we won! uh-huh, uh-huh. mom?!! [ female announcer ] swiffer gives cleaning a monstrous new meaning. monsters university, in theaters, in 3d. it's easy to follow the progress you're making

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oh, my god. oh, my goodness. dude. >> breaking news this morning, at least six people dead as dangerous storms ripped through texas. and right now the search is on for more than a dozen missing. >> just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. shocking new details out of cleveland revealing that one of ariel castro's alleged kidnap victims treated as a human punching bag. and dramatic new video, a baby stroller falls on two train tracks. that mother leaps into action. >> i haven't seen that. that is crazy. >> i haven't either. welcome back to "early start. >> 30 minutes past the hour. we begin with breaking news this morning, it's a desperate search right now for 14 people in north texas. they are missing after a wave of apparent tornadoes. this is what residents of hood county had to endure.

terrifying funnel clouds bearing down, the hardest hit area is granbu granbury, texas. the sheriff said six people were killed just in one habitat for humanity neighborhood. and most of the 120 motor homes in that neighborhood are gone. they are destroyed. and emergency medical provider said at least 100 additional people were injured. victor blackwell for us this morning. walk us through what the latest is there. >> well, there are still more than a dozen people with serious injuries in a hospital here in granbury, the lake granbury hospital. more than 60 people transported to hospitals here and in ft. worth. we also know that at the height of this storm, it was a mile wide at some point. and the injuries come from people being pinned inside their homes. we heard a story from a pastor to a church here at town of an 11-year-old boy who was rescued and taken to a hospital. this is all happening, we're told, in a small area called

rancho brazos. those habitat for humanity homes and single wide mobile homes there. the deputies have blocked off the streets to control the search and also keep people from hurting themselves going to look. we have a description of the community from the sheriff here of hood county. listen. >> there's about 110 homes in that residential area. and there's a number of them that are fairly new within the last five years that were built from habitat for humanity. i have not been out there myself, but i've been told that most all of that is in heavy, damaged, totally destroyed conditions out there. it was a war zone, i guess, like we saw in the past with hurricanes from the coast. it was bad from what they told me. >> just to get an idea of how strong the winds were, the sheriff told us about a county employee who lost his home. but he was physically okay. he wanted to help his neighbors.

but he went out to get into his truck and couldn't find it. a 3/4 ton pickup is gone, still have not found it. maybe they'll find it when the sun comes up. >> oh, my goodness. we're so worried about what they're going to find. how much warning did residents in the area get before the tornado hit? >> well, it varies. there were sirens, we're told, the warning of a tornado on and on and on for about an hour. there was also a reverse 911 call that went out. but because we're told this apparent tornado formed and reformed went down and came back up, it depends upon where th this -- the families were when they heard this -- were they on the front end of it or the back end of it? that would dictate how much warning they got. zoraida? >> even this morning, it started as a heavy storm and turned into a tornado. and in the middle of the night, as well.

we're going to continue to check in with you. but right now, let's bring in nathan stringer. a spokesman for hood county. sir, we know you're incredibly busy. we want to talk about the people involved here. we understand that there are six people dead, we have 14 people still missing right now, we have a dozen people in the hospital. are you concerned that, perhaps, there are more people missing than that number of 14? >> no, they're pretty firm with that number of 14 still remaining unaccounted for. you know, they do have the six deceased persons, but they're firm on 14 people still missing. >> talk to me about the challenges you're facing this morning. >> well, as daylight breaks, of course, the emergency responders will start assessing the damage and getting back to those places that they weren't able to get to last night. they're still searching for the, of course, the 14 missing

persons which, of course, is their priority. and they'll start doing some damage assessment. we'll have a better idea first daylight. >> and that habitat for humanity community that we keep on talking about, do you know if they got good warning? were they totally surprised by these storms? >> the sheriff's office sent out a reverse 911 call prior to the storms passing through advising of the severe weather. you know, they had the early warning system, the sirens went off, so the best information we can get is about 10 to 15 minutes of warning they had. >> somebody earlier called this a war zone. you've had some evacuations. do you feel you're getting the assistance that you need, that folks have shelter right now? >> yes, the community churches have stepped in, you know, everybody's been very welcoming to the victims of this incident. the surrounding agencies will

soon help. we have all the help we need and the sheriff is of course very appreciative of that. >> it's very good to hear that. one final question for you, the people that are hospitalized, do you know what condition they're in? >> i don't have that information. >> all right. so we're going to continue to check in. we wish you all the luck in the world. we know you have a lot of work ahead of you. appreciate you taking the time to talk with us this morning. >> thank you. >> thank you. 36 minutes after the hour right now. disturbing new information this morning about ariel castro, the man who allegedly kidnapped three women and held them captive in cleveland for a decade. castro was particularly violent with michelle knight, describing her as his main punching bag. pamela brown is in cleveland with new information. good morning, pamela. >> well, good morning to you, john. five cleveland first responders were honored as heroes last night after so many years seeing

the flyers, the missing persons posters all around the city. they explained the overwhelming emotion of being one of the first people on the scene here and rescuing the girls that ariel castro allegedly held captive for so long. there was one first responder who spoke that really choked up during that time. her name is officer barbara johnson and she was not only one of the first officers here on the scene, but also the first female figure these girls had seen and so long. here's how she described that unbelievable moment when she first saw michelle knight. let's take a listen. >> michelle hugged me first and, boy, you can't describe the feelings. when someone's clutching you and saying please don't let me go. it just rips your heart out of your chest. >> and she also talked about the roller coaster of emotions she's experienced since that moment. she said at times she feels

ecstatic and then crashes with overwhelming feelings of sadness. >> we're also hearing from ariel castro's daughter, brand new information there. >> that's right. we do have some audiotape of emily. she's in prison in indiana. she spoke about how her father manipulated her. we heard from castro's brothers in an interview with martin savidge about how they had been to the home and had no idea the girls were held captive there. and now his daughter is speaking out. and according to her, she says her father did everything he could do to hide what was going on. let's take a listen to this audio. >> the upstairs was blocked off with a big base speaker. so i figured that since he lived there alone so long he didn't have any need for those, what there's four bedrooms upstairs

he didn't have any need for them. i was just kind of like, can i, you know, sleep upstairs in my old bedroom? and he said, no, it's cold up there, it's blocked off. it's dusty and so i just was like, okay. >> so, pamela, any new information on the victims this morning? >> we've been speaking to family friends of some of the victims and others, and we're learning that they are really getting back to life as one person put it, we spoke to. they're trying to live life with gusto now. we've learned that gina dejesus and michelle knight have communicated by phone at least once. one of the girls requested to speak to the other after they were rescued. and then we're also learning that they're trying to figure out how to use new technology and not so new technology they may have missed out on over the past ten years. one of the girls, in fact, is learning to use an iphone. and then also, we have learned according to abc news that gina

dejesus visited a salon for the first time just recently. >> good for her. pamela brown in cleveland, thanks so much. >> when i was there, michelle knight has a particularly difficult story. we talked to her brother, freddy. and he alleges they actually suffered unspeakable pain inside of their home which is why she chose not to have contact with her family. add these details to her already complicated life. she is the one that allegedly delivered the baby and gave mouth to mouth resuscitation. that woman is a fighter. finding the missing utah mom susan powell has come up empty. searching with cadaver dogs. powell was reported missing in december of 2009 after failing to show up for work. her husband josh under a cloud of suspicion in the case. last year, he killed his two sons with a hatchet himself

by setting his home on fire. and the final phase of jodi arias' murder trial begins with jurors ultimately deciding if she receives a sentence of life or death. yesterday they found that arias was exceptionally cruel when she murdered her boyfriend travis alexander, that verdict means she's eligible to receive the death penalty. the prosecution hammered home its case. >> she made sure that she killed him by stabbing him over and over and over again and then finishing him off. >> the defense will try to convince jurors that arias should not be executed. she could make a statement asking that her life be spared. the 12-year-old california boy charged with killing his 8-year-old sister remains in custody in the juvenile detention facility this morning. the brother of leila fowler repeatedly told the judge he understood the charges against him. the boy is due back in court on may 29th.

an alaskan volcano being watched closely after spewing ash clouds up to 20,000 feet high. scientists put the volcano on watch status wednesday. that means there's elevated seismic activity and flowing lava. the rumblings could disrupt planes flying overhead, as well. scientists say it could erupt. and coming up next, we'll talk about the debate over preventive surgery. how angelina jolie's decision to have a double mastectomy is giving some doctors pause. and governor chris christie opens up about his weight loss surgery, why he calls the public reaction insane. he also says it's over the top. ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ let me play among the stars ♪ and let me see what spring is like ♪ ♪ on jupiter and mars ♪ in other words

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but bounty basic can handle them. in this lab demo one select-a-size sheet of bounty basic is 50% stronger than one full sheet of the leading bargain brand. bring it. bounty basic. welcome back, it is 45 minutes past the hour. angelina jolie's decision to have a double mastectomy has sparked a national debate on breast and ovarian cancer treatment. and while every woman needs to make her own decision about what course of treatment is right for her, some caution all the publicity surrounding jolie's choice may lead to unnecessary tests and procedures. >> angelina jolie's revelation about having a preventive double mastectomy may have just had the effect that she intended. to start a conversation. >> more on angelina jolie's stunning revelation. >> she's had a double mastectomy. >> today, the brave mother of six is again making headlines for the next step she may soon

be taking to reduce her chances of getting cancer. "people" magazine reports she may undergo additional surgeries. this time to remove her ovaries. in her "new york times" op-ed, jolie wrote, my doctors estimated i had a 50% risk of ovarian cancer. although the risk is different in the case of each woman, ovarian cancer is what took the life of her mother at the age of 56. and much like a mastectomy, surgically removing one's ovaries is not an easy decision. when i sat down with four women who underwent mastectomies, what they said about ovary removal surprised me. >> i felt like i had control over my breast cancer surveillance. every six months religiously, i was in new york getting tested, i thought they were doing a great job, i felt comfortable. ovarian cancer, they're like, well, now we hope -- we'll do our best with what we have. but we really don't have a test to help you. and i'm like, well, that's

really not acceptable. what are we going to do about this? >> and what was the answer? >> hysterectomy. >> yeah, we had our ovaries out. >> i'm going to. >> you're going to? >> yeah. >> i met with a doctor and he said i have such bad news. and i said what. and he said, when you're 35, i recommend you get your ovaries out. and i said that's fantastic. and he said why, and i said you think i'm going to live to 35. i was diagnosed when i was 28, i wanted to hit 30. >> jolie's announcement about her experience will no doubt raise awareness, but it's also sparked discussion in the medical community. some doctors are concerned that her public op-ed will cause many women to seek out unnecessary testing and aggressive treatment. >> my greatest concern really is unnecessary testing for a woman who does not have a family history of ovarian cancer. i really don't think there is a need to consider removal of the

ovaries in that situation. >> genetic tests like the one jolie had can be expensive. i sat down with the founder of susan g. komen for the cure who hopes to help change that. >> our view is we'd like to see it -- people have access to this as much as possible and hopefully in the years -- the near future, people will have access, wide access to this. it is expensive. >> when you have a mastectomy, i've chosen to have a double mastectomy, is it covered by insurance companies? >> in many policies it is, and it's usually an option for women. >> jolie has made it clear that her number one priority is to be around for her six children. as her husband brad pitt said yesterday, all i want is for her to have a long and healthy life with myself and our children. >> you know, there is so much controversy surrounding whether or not you should have a double mastectomy when you should have it. and as i shared my story, i've had people chime in and say, look, you have an opportunity to send a message and you may be

sending the wrong one. and sometimes you get some criticism and, you know, it's difficult to take, but i read it and thought what i'm going to do is share more details about why i chose to do this. at the end of the day, the more information that a woman has about how to make this choice, this incredibly complicated choice, i think the more empowering it is for her. >> and you want to support people to make their decisions, the decisions that are right for them. >> yes. and for the record, the woman who appeared on "starting point" yesterday, she tried to convince me to choose another option repeatedly. she made me think really hard about my decision. and i think that's what we need. we need to think long and hard about our decisions, but at the end of the day as i like to say, respect everyone's choice. >> all right. 49 minutes after the hour. coming up, chris christie breaks his silence about his weight loss surgery. why his anger boiled up over clothing next.

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welcome back, everyone. britain's prince harry giving high praise to the u.s. after his week long tour. and before flying home, he dazzled admirers with his athletic prowess. >> prince harry finally gets a chance to play a sport he's really good at. this polo match will raise at least $1 million for his african

children's charity. high society turned out in force to watch the prince play. and also to define his sense of fashion. >> the sport when he's outside of the country side and very elegant when he's in the city. >> this is the last day of my tour around the united states, thank you for a wonderful week. i've witnessed the extraordinary generosity of the people of this great nation. >> and it's a nation that welcomed harry back with open arms after his scandal ridden holiday to las vegas last year. it's been dubbed the rehab tour by some. >> if he can find a cracking girl like kate and, you know, settle down, i think you know what, he'd be just away. he's getting to that stage of his life. >> and the winner is -- harry

winning in more ways than one in america. but come this summer, all eyes will be on prince william and especially kate as they and the world welcome the newest member of the royal family. max foster, cnn, greenwich, connecticut. >> a baby? i hadn't heard. no one's talking about that. all right, 54 minutes past the hour. this is a terrifying scene at a subway station in philadelphia. a 14-month-old baby girl in a stroller rolling off the platform and right on to the tracks. look at the surveillance video. you can see the girl's mother standing on the platform, look, oh, my gosh, as the stroller begins to roll. the mother leaps on to the tracks, i'm going to let you watch it. look at that. she grabs her baby. >> grabs the stroller first. >> the baby? >> no, there's the baby. >> okay. yep. >> and the child suffered cuts on the forehead and is being

treated at an area hospital but the child is alive and the mother's an amazing hero. >> good for her. >> thank goodness there wasn't a train coming by. in a week after saying he wouldn't talk about his weight, new jersey governor chris christie is speaking candidly about it. the governor revealed last week he had lap band surgery in february to help him slim down. and at a book signing last night he admitted his frustration over not being able to lose weight. he said when he changed from professional clothes to casual clothes to go out he said i'd be changing and something wouldn't fit and that's when i'd be angry with myself. but he said the public's reaction to his surgery announcement was insane and over the top. >> did he say why? >> apparently because it was insane and over the top. >> he cannot possibly -- >> he talks about it plenty too. it's not like he doesn't talk about. coming up, men experiencing

labor pains? seriously? the video going viral this morning in hopes of getting guys to understand how giving birth really feels. i'm so glad you called. thank you. we're not in london, are we? no. why? apparently my debit card is. what? i know. don't worry, we have cancelled your old card. great. thank you. in addition to us monitoring your accounts for unusual activity, you could also set up free account alerts. okay. [ female announcer ] at wells fargo we're working around the clock to help protect your money and financial information. here's your temporary card. welcome back. how was london? [ female announcer ] when people talk, great things happen.

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so a new billboard campaign aimed at preventing teen pregnancy in chicago is taking a unique approach. it shows images of pregnant boys as a reminder that a baby isn't just the girl's responsibility. meanwhile, a video that's gone viral on youtube aims to show men just how painful childbirth can be. look at this. >> here we go. >> awesome. awesome, guys. >> that's two dudes howling as they receive electric shocks meant to simulate labor pains. one of the men says it feels like someone is taking a saw and carving up my abdomen and his fellow sufferer says he wants to throw up. >> which is accurate. you do want to throw up. you have an issue with this.

>> i think there's this notion out there that men don't appreciate the pain you go through in childbirth. and we do. we get it. >> i understand you're sympathetic to it, but you don't know what it feels like. >> of course. how could we? but we appreciate it. we respect you. >> this is an -- this is to simulate what it feels like. >> no, you're bitter. "early start" continues right now. >> i am not bitter. son of a gun, we'll have to check on that. >> listen to that, breaking news, six people killed more than a dozen people missing, over 100 injured. this deadly tornado outbreak overnight, we're going to take you live to the scene of this devastation. and damage control, the white house tries to take control of the irs scandal sending the head of the agency packing. o.j. simpson wants another chance.

he is on the stand. why he thinks he deserves a new trial and why was he so cheery in court? >> we're going to find out. >> it is thursday, may 16th, 6:00 a.m. in the east. we begin with this breaking news developing right now. a dangerous deadly tornado outbreak overnight, at least six people killed, more than 100 others injured in north texas, and right now the search for 14 people who this morning are missing. terrifying funnel clouds bearing down, the hardest hit area, granbury, texas, where those six people were killed. killed most of the 120 homes there simply destroyed. victor blackwell is on the scene. victor, what's the latest this morning? >> john, more than a dozen people still in local hospitals and a rescue team from dallas coming to look for those 14 missing persons. the sheriff says that these tornadoes left one community

looking like a war zone. take a look at this. >> go! >> video from a storm chaser in north texas wednesday night. and this. this is what a tornado loo like in the dark. lit lightning. >> just pray to god as loud as you can. >> reporter: that's what the man did when the storm hit. he rode out the storm with his family in his bathtub. >> you could see the whole roof collapsing. see the twister just there facing you. it's horrible. >> reporter: officials say it hop scotched through the area touching down and lifting up as it cut through north texas. as storm passed, reports of injuries and fatalities came in. >> i've had information that people were found in homes, they were hard hit, those homes i've been told were collapsed, destroyed, as they were probably hit by flying debris.

>> reporter: those who could made their way out of their homes while crews worked to free people trapped inside buildings. >> the top of the hill, you could tell where the tornado went through directly because it's just wiped out. trees gone, houses completely demolished. >> reporter: officials sent school buses to the hardest hit areas to help with the evacuations as residents cope with losing everything in an instant. >> there's just nothing left, i'm sorry. there's just nothing left. >> reporter: there were several communities in this part of north texas that were hit. the hardest hit area, a small community rancho brazos, a collection of habitat for human they homes and single wide mobile homes. 250 people evacuated from that area. many of them in hotels, with the red cross or now living with family and friends, trying to figure out where they will live tomorrow night and the next night as their homes had been destroyed. john? >> already, victor blackwell for

us in texas where the sun will rise shortly and rescue teams will get a real sense of the devastation there. let's look at where these storms are headed. meteorologist jennifer is in the cnn center in atlanta. what's happening for those folks? >> over the last hour the severe thunderstorm watch has since been allowed to expire. you still see some showers and thunderstorms but well to the south of the areas that were hit by the report eed tornadoes. what we're hearing now again, bayed on sbc, we're seeing three reported tornadoes that are being shown from north texas down to areas like central texas. we start from the north all of the way down towards the south. now, the area that's getting a lot of attention, of course, that's granbury where victor blackwell is live. right now we're hearing multiple fatalities and injuries. this looks like to be the work of several supercells. one is to the north as well as down to the south. i say that to you because we could see potentially ten

tornadoes possibly moving through north as well as central texas. for the one in granbury and made its way over to clee buburn. this video is gripping. if you look at it you're going to see what is a classic wedge tornado. again, it's t only being lit up by the lightning there. so it's very hard for residents to see this coming in the evening and then it was rain. this didn't make much for making things any better across parts of texas. as i take you back over to our graphic, when you get these storms moving through in the evening, that's why we stress the importance of having a weather radio, that noaa weather radio. the rain is coming to an end and will drive things out over the next couple of days. i point this out to you with so many people reportedly losing their homes. i can tell you this, we are still hearing reports of a tornado right around midnight where they're seeing reportedly buildings down.

for the month of may they typically see 322 tornadoes. so far this year, we've only had three confirmed reports. of course, with this outbreak here, it looks like those numbers are going to go up. zoraida, send it back over to you. you asked me last hour, did they have ample warning. one of the officials last hour said they had 10 to 15 minutes. that's pretty good warning time. >> that's good to know. jennifer delgado live for us. thank you. six minutes passed the hour. heads are starting to roll in the irs scandal. the agency's acting commissioner forced to step down due to the targeting of conservative political groups. his pink slip, we understand, may not be the last one handed out. the irs actions have triggered criminal and congressional investigations along with promises of reform. cnn's dan lothian following all the developments for us. so nice to see you, dan. what's the latest here? >> good morning, zoraida. the president had nibbinitially taken a cautious approach, he wanted to wait until all the facts were out.

at the same time, this irs scandal is something that hit home with a lot of americans and the president needed to restore confidence in government, so he tried to do that by coming out with what the white house said was a strong response. trying to step out of a political sinkhole president obama expressed anger at misconduct within the irs. >> it's inexcusable and americans have a right to be angry about it and i am angry about it. i will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency. >> reporter: the agency's acting commissioner steve miller was asked to resign and president obama bound to put in place new safeguards and work with congressional investigators. >> i will do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again but this scandal threatens to run much deeper. the justice department has launched a criminal investigation and attorney general eric holder was on the hot seat wednesday, pressed for answers by the house judiciary committee. >> i would strongly encourage this administration to get out front, get all the facts out,

let the chips fall where they may. >> anybody who has broken the law will be held accountable. >> reporter: the irs scandal has drawn bipartisan outrage but some top republicans already seem convinced laws were broken. >> my question isn't about who is going to resign. my question is who is going to jail over this scandal? >> reporter: this is a white house under siege, from the irs case to the a.ap phone records probe to benghazi, all threatened to overshadow the president's second term agenda. on the defensive the white house released 100 pages of e-mails wednesday as first reported by cnn. it's part of an effort to prove politics play no role in crafting the so-called talking points that followed the deadly attacks in libya. but republicans are seizing on all these scandals, releasing this tough new video using the president's own words. >> the way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. >> reporter: white house spokesman jay carney battered in briefings all week insisted the

president has set a high standard and won't tolerate anything less. >> he wants and instructs everyone who works in the government, whether they work for him or civil service, to hold themselves to that standard. and when he finds out that there have been failures, he acts on it. >> top democratic strategists have been invited to the white house today to meet with the chief of staff. this is a meeting but one of those who expects to be there says he will encourage the white house to try to get out in front of these controversies, to put all the information out there in order to tamp down the scandal that has enveloped washington. as for the president himself, we expect he will get more tough questions during the joint appearance with the turkish prime minister today. >> if you look at the time line here. miller did not become irs acting commissioner until after the activity took place. is he essentially the fall guy here? >> the reason he was targeted and is on the hot seat is because he found out about all of this in 2012 but did not

alert congress. so he was at the irs, was not in leadership at the time, at least not at the top, when this all went down. but again, it's because he had information but did not give that information to the congress. in addition to that, he -- there is this perception problem. so you go after the person at the very top, as well, in order to try to clean things up. >> you go after the leadership, i suppose. dan lothian, live in washington, thank you. the next phase of the jodi arias murder trial gets under way today and the death penalty very much on the table. that's what it's all about right now. on wednesday, the jury decided the murder of arias' former boyfriend, decided it was a specially crew and now the defense must now try to get the jury to spare her life. casey is live in phoenix. good morning, casey. >> the so-called aggravated factor phase of the trial went quickly yesterday and the prosecutors were able to convince the jury that travis alexander suffered excruciating

pain and fear. >> we the jury dooley i'm pal nelled and sworn upon our oaths do find that the aggravating factor specially cruel has been proven. >> reporter: jodi arias sat solemnly as the jury decided she is eligible for a death sentence. that after a mini trial known as the aggravating factor phase of a process that will ultimately determine arias' sentence. even before prosecutor war ran martinez called his first witness the county medical examiner, family and friends of victim travis alexander, fought back tears in anticipation of what was to come. martinez displayed graphic images of alexander's body on giant screens enveloping the courtroom. they showed dozens of stab wounds including one so deep that it punctured a vein going into his heart that produced a gusher of blood and several to the head that dented his school. >> she made sure that she killed him by stabbing him over and over and over again and then

finishing him off. >> reporter: then came the most horrific image, gaping wound to alexander's throat, sliced open nearly ear to ear. it remained on the screen for what seemed an eternity, as many in court, his sisters, arias herself and some jurors moved their eyes. it was specially cruel, a requirement for the death penalty in arizona. >> you can imagine the absolute terror as he's sitting there defenseless, water coming down, that is extreme emotional anguish. two minutes. >> reporter: he also asked the jury to sit in silence for two full minutes, the time he contends it took alexander to die. arias' defense team said that was an exaggeration and argued that as alexander fought for his life, adrenaline and rapid blood loss could have reduced his suffering. >> and dr. horn who testified

just moments ago told you that the adrenaline does, in fact -- >> jurors rejected that argument and now will decide whether there are enough mitigating factors to spare jodi arias' life. today we're expecting to hear victims' impact statements from two of travis alexander's siblings. then we're expected to hear from witnesses favorable to jodi arias, a childhood friend and ex-boyfriend as they try to persuade the jury that her life should be spared. the key question, will jodi arias herself take the stand. john? >> casey, dramatic day ahold. the widow of alleged boston bomber tamerlan tsarnaev is not off the hook. the source familiar with the investigation says that catherine russell continues to meet with investigators. as fbi tries to piece together every moment of tamerlan

tsarnaev's life, where he went, who he met with. they're also looking at the couple's finances. the stakes are high for russell to remain out of prison. she has a 3-year-old daughter. so if you're hoping to hit the powerball jackpot you are in luck. there was no big winner in last night's drawing. it was worth $360 million. what does that mean? that means more money on the line. drawing for next saturday expected to top $475 million, perhaps more. if that's not enough for you, want to play a game or maybe you might be able to improve your odds a little bit, pecked pass $2 million. >> improving your odds a little bit. >> interesting. one dollar for ticket for mega millions, $2 for powerball. your actual return, pretty much the same as $2 powerball ticket if you win. >> thank you. >> not improve your odds, it improves the investment returns. >> excellent.

thank you for sharing that. the first time o.j. simpson has testified in one of his trials. complete with big grins on the stand. we're going to have details on his plea for a new trial. we went out and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪

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we want to give you an update. deadly tornados in north texas. rescue crews are assessing all of the damage there. they're looking for 14 people that are still missing. up to ten twisters touched down there. the hardest hit area we understand is granbury, texas. the hood county sheriff says six people were killed in a habitat for humanity neighborhood. most of the homes there were destroyed. emergency medical provider says at least 100 people were injured. they're calling it a war zone. it looks like a war zone. >> larning so much more as the sun rise there's. 17 minutes after the hour. o.j. simpson, synonymous with legal drama, even with all his history this is a legal first. he has never testified in any of his criminal cases until now. and, man, it was a spectacle. simpson claims his lawyer botched his defense last time around so he wants a new trial. cnn's paul hammond is loo tl live in las vegas this morning. good morning, paul.

>> in the courtroom, o.j. simpson was confident. at times he was light hearted as he basically told the world that his former attorney was awful. >> more than 4 1/2 years after being sentenced, o.j. simpson testified for the first time in a bid to win a new trial with only one arm free to gesture. the disgraced former football star said he repeatedly told his then lawyer about plans to confront memorabilia dealers to get back mementos. >> the overall advice he gave me was, is you have a right to get your stuff. he gave me an example, that if you were walking down the street and you saw your laptop with your name on it in a car, you can use the force to break the window of the car to get the laptop. he told me not only then but even the night before that i couldn't go in a person's

dwelling because that would be trespassing. >> does the plan that you have to retrieve your property evolve based on his advice to you? >> yes. >> all right. and you talked to him how many times, do you think? >> four, five, six. >> reporter: o.j. reasserted he wanted no guns involved when he led the raid. >> did that plan ever involve a discussion of using any weapons? >> never no weapons. weapons was never an issue. >> simpson was at times jovial. the former actor said following his arrest galanter assured him he would not be convicted of armed robbery, kidnapping and assault, for his role in the confrontation. >> he said, relax, relax. o.j., i've got it. i'll take care of this. i got it. i'll get you out of this. you're not going to be convicted. >> did you trust mr. galanter? >> yes. >> did you believe that he would get you out of it? >> i believed i was innocent, yeah. >> reporter: simpson also said

galanter failed to properly inform him about a prosecution plea deal offer. and in court documents the prosecutor says it's up to the defendant to go ahead and bartter for their ploo deal and/or testify. today is expected to be, by the way, a rather short day in court. and galanter comes up friday. john. >> that will be interesting. all right. paul vercammen, thank you. manhunt over in new orleans. 19-year-old scott is in police custody this morning. he was arrested last night for the mother's day parade shooting that wounded 19 people including two children. witnesses identified scotts a the person seen right here in the surveillance video opening fire on the crowd during the parade last sunday in the city's seventh ward. and next, breaking coverage of the deadly tornados in texas. what was it like on the ground the moment these storms whipped through parts of that state? we're going to ask a storm chaser who was there to see it all.

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minding your business this morning. three record high on wall street. trifecta of hows. >> dow, s&p 500, and google shares hit the all-time highs. christine romans has the details. >> people are looking at their 401(k) balances and saying this has been an amazing year. this is fifth strongest bull market since the 1920s. s&p 500, that's the stock market that most reflect what you have in your 401(k). that's up 145% since 2009, with

a few little pullbacks but mostly it has been going straight up. and you've seen 20 dow records this year. so the path of least resistance for most mutual fund and 401(k) investors has been higher. there's nervousness, obviously. only half of americans are invested in the market. they feel like a suck fer they get in now. but by and large you have markets day after day hitting the new highs. 8:30 the fed is speaking today. we'll see if that changes the tone but that's where we stand right now. >> what's the news with all of these irs offices closing? >> embattled agency, commissioner is out, mission is under fire. now four spending cuts means four l furloughs this summer. first unpaid day off for workers is next friday. that includes the irs office, hot lines, help centers, some online tools won't work those days like the where's my refund tracker. uh-uh. the irs warns more closures could be coming just like other government agencies the irs is

squeezing money out of budget. 600 million bucks because of the forced government spending cuts that went into effect in march. the irs says if you electronically file with them and it's a furlough day they will not acknowledge receipt of it. so be careful. you could be late. >> so one thing you know about our money? >> expect the unexpected. a brand new survey really surprised me from ameriprise found baby boomers, 90% of them, encountered life event that dinged their life savings. medical bill, stock market declines, having to support their adult children. in all, $117,000 extra expenses they didn't plan for in retirement. >> my kids will be supporting me when they get holder. >> can they support me, too? >> absolutely. >> thank you, christine. 25 minutes past the hour. a major medical breakthrough with stem cells raising major ethical questions. elizabeth cohen joins us to explain this. dramatic new video.

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oh, my goodness! >> breaking news this morning. at least six people dead and dangerous tornadoes rip through texas and right now developing at this moment, the search is on for more than a dozen people still missing. sick, disturbing new allegations against kidnap and rape suspect ariel castro. what one of the cleveland victims may have endured at the suspect's hands. and just incredible video this morning as a mother jumps into action and saves her baby. the stroller fell on to the train tracks. you will not believe the rescue. >> how many times have we watched and it still just tanks your breath away. welcome back to "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. >> i'm john berman. 29 minutes after the hour right now. in our breaking news, dangerous, deadly storms overnight killing at least six people and right

now the search is on for 14 people still missing. the fear is the death toll could go up. terrifying funnel clouds bearing down. the hardest hit area, granbury texas in a habitat for humanity neighborhood. most of the 120 homes destroyed. more than 100 people injured at this point. victor blackwell is live in granbury for us. what is the latest this morning? >> well, the team coming from dallas to look for those 14 missing persons, this rescue task force, is now staging and waiting for the sun to come up to begin to search some of these flattened homes where there were people pinned after the storm came through yesterday. those people may have been rescued. some of them unfortunately did not survive. they're now looking for those persons, those 14 who are missing. we are also told there is a possibility that some of those people are with family members or with friends and just have not checked in with the red cross or with the sheriff's office. a bit of optimism there.

but when the storm came through, the national weather service said, if you are in the path of this storm, take cover for your life. and that's what some people did. listen. >> oh, my! >> well, the rain -- the hail started, and that was probably ten minutes worth. and then the tornado just started going in circles. it probably lasted 10, 15 minutes at the most. >> the only place in our house that was probably safe enough was our hallway. i grabbed a mattress and, you know, i -- there's just nothing left. i'm sorry. there's just nothing left. >> the sheriff says that many of these communities look like a war zone with cars flipped over. speaking of cars, there's a county employee who wanted to go out and help his neighbors. he wanted to go out and hop into his truck and do what we could but the truck was gone. a three-quarter ton pickup still

missing. when the sun comes up, the people in this community of granbury will see the full impact of these tornados. >> a truck just gone. victor, how many people have been evacuated, where are they staying? >> well, the number we received from the sheriff's office, 250 people were brought out of this area of rancho brazos, the worst hit area. 90 of them on school buses. they are with those family and friends. many of them are in local hotels. the red cross tells us that they have 20 in their shelters but there are shelters open. what else will be open today, surprisingly, schools in hood county will be open as students head back. although many of them do not have homes. some of them have no electricity. and they will try to concentrate somehow today in class. >> a challenging, challenging day ahead for that community. >> victor, thanks. >> may be good for some of the kids to have normalcy. the initial weather service estimates up to ten tornadoes may have touched down in this

tornado outbreak. storm chaser reid timber was on the ground in texas. you were chasing this storm in northern texas last night. your team shot video. that's what you do. tell us about the video you shot and tell us what you saw. >> yeah, the first tornado we saw was red river in north texas. supercell developed further north. produced tornado. the next one down the line produced a stronger tornado and the next one down the line would be the stronger. that was the granbury storm. we also had a report of a mild wide tornado that changed directions and moved due north. and it reminded me a lot of the greenberg tornado that had that same, wide tornado that headed straight for town and almost stationary. it was the worth case scenario for that area and granbury. we were underneath the storms. they were spinning right off the bat. all the conditions were in place

for a major tornado outbreak. and it caught a lot of people by surprise. forecast model did not show that. we woke up the next morning and looked and it was totally different. it looked like a major outbreak in texas. and we deployed immediately and our job as storm chasers is to provide that ground troop in the storm and stream live videos. we did through our website so people could see what's happening underneath the storm and try to help out in the warning process as best we can can. >> you tweeted, life threatening situation, mile wide tornado heading toward cleburn, texas. get cover now. do you think people had enough warning to take shelter? >> yeah, the national weather service, the storm chasers in the field, the emergency managers, everybody was working together. and the warning was definitely there. and this is one of those situations that the tornado was so strong that, yes, it had that strong wording in the warning. and if you were above ground, if

you're not taking that necessary precautions, i mean, it's a difference between life or death. very strong tornadoes are skaur scary. that's why people need to have storm shelters or have a safety plan in place and be proactive and have noaa weather radios and batteries charged up, above ground shelters, storm rooms. but people need to be proactive and take these warnings seriously. you never know, it could be the worst case scenario and you have to assume the worst case scenario when the warnings are issued. this this case, in rural hood county, who knows, the sirens were going off. the warnings were in place. i just hope that, you know, it's just -- here's the harder part when you hear about the loss of life when these tornadoes because we're out there trying to help out the best we can and

it's just sad. our thoughts and prayers are with those people. >> good advice. when the warnings do come, please take cover. please heed those warnings. reed timmer, storm chaser shooting video on the ground. we appreciate it. it is 36 minutes past the hour. jodi arias will be fighting for her life today as the penalty phase of her murder trial gets under way in a phoenix courtroom. on wednesday, the jury concluded the aggravation phase of the trial. >> the state of arizona versus jodi arias, verdict, count one, aggravating factor, specially cruel. we the jury duly impanelled upon our oaths do find the aggravating factor specially cruel has been proven. >> what that means that decision means arias remains eligible for the death penalty. arias and her defense team must now convince that same jury to give her life in prison instead. under arizona law arias is allowed to beg the jury for mercy and offer an apology to

the victim's family if she so chooses. 12-year-old cal boy charge with killing his 8-year-old sister remains in custody in a juvenile detention facility. in a court appearance yesterday the brother of laila fowler repeatedly told the judge she understood the charges against him. the i do is due back in court on may 29th. new this morning, there may be a new ricin scare. the post the service in spokane, washington, says the preliminary shows presence of the poison on two letters. one was addressed to the spokane post office, the other to a local federal judge. last month a mississippi officer was arrested. eric holder grilled by congress over twhi justice department secretly tapped into the phone records of the associated press. but he had little to offer on why it happened. holder said he recused himself from the investigation. >> i am a possessor -- i was a possessor of the information that was ultimately leaked.

>> the committee criticized holder and accusing him of not taking responsibility for what happened at the justice department. a little levity during that holder hearing thanks to a 19-month-old child. take a look at north carolina congressman, he's baby sitting while questioning the attorney general. that's his grandson niko. adorable sitting on his lap. niko, amazing behavior for most of the time there. really, just so much any of us can take at a hearing like this. listen. >> many of the sales on increasingly made over the internet where criminals are -- can hide their identityies -- where criminals can hide their identities and elude capture. >> people really saying what we're all feeling at that point in the hearing. there's only so much you can

take. the kid was tired. >> he was. >> i would cry, too. >> watt was baby sitting because his wife and daughter-in-law was having lunch with the first lady. having a good grandfather. the attorney general seemed grateful for the breaker. >> europe only supposed to do that for your confirmation hearing. that's when you roll out the kids. >> i'm just trying to get my line of questioning. i've been in the back listening and niko says you've done a good job up to this point. >> niko clearly in charge there. >> he is a star now. 39 minutes past the hour. major breakthrough to tell you about this morning. researchers in oregon health and science university say they have figured out a way to clone human stem cells. >> stem cells developed from human skin cells. can develop into muscle, nerve, or other cells that make up the body's tissues. elizabeth cohen joins us now from atlanta. elizabeth, how would this work? >> john, i want to tell you first how exciting this is. this is something that science

nerds have been watching and waiting for for more than a decade. embryonic stem cells can be turned into virtually in the cell in the body. what's really exciting about this recent happening here is that it would genetically be identical to you. so imagine if, let's say, i had a heart attack and i needed fresh cardiac muscle to replace my damaged cardiac muscle, you use these stem cells to make cardiac muscle that is genetically identical to me. it's lot elizabeth cohen written all over it. nobody else. that way my body won't reject it. as for the how part that you asked, it's really theoretically this would work quite simply. take some of my skin. turn it into a embryo. what they do in the lab is turn that skin cell into an embryo and develop stem cells from that embryo and then turn it into virtually any human body part they want.

>> wow. it does sound science fictiony. how far away are we from actually accomplishing this? >> we are quite far away. the only thing they've done now is made the embryonic stem cells. they haven't turned it into cardiac muscle or nerve cells for someone who has had a spinal cord injury or whatever. five to ten years is the estimate that the study author gave us. i mean, they're not really sure. that's a ballpark figure. he thinks that possibly the first body part that they could make would be bone marrow cells to help people who have, say, leukemia. and then they would move on from there. we're talking about possibly being able to help diabetics, making new brain cells to help people with parkinson's. the list goes on and on. >> incredible. >> it is. fit works, i should say. if it works. >> still a long way to go. >> still excitement. there is at lot of optimism that this in years to come will work out. >> our resident science nerd.

heart stopping video of an infant in a stroller rolling right on to train tracks. the dramatic rescue that followed. [ male announcer ] someone said that it couldn't be done. but he with a chuckle replied that maybe it couldn't, but he would be one who wouldn't say so till he tried. ♪ somebody scoffed, "oh, you'll never do that." "at least no one has ever done it." but he took off his coat and he took off his hat, and the first thing we knew he'd begun it. there are thousands to tell you it cannot be done, there are thousands to prophesy failure. there are thousands to point out to you one by one, the dangers that wait to assail you.

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so welcome back to "early start," everyone. whether it's on the road or p k parked on a local street, it seems now more than ever drivers are targeted for tickets. governments big and small with really looking for new refer knew streams. it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. to the naked eye you may not be able to see the difference between this and this.

but in florida, a subtle maneuver has drivers seeing red, a lot faster. the florida department of transportation quietly shortened yellow light intervals by mi milliseconds. red light cameras like this, more hefty $158 fines. motorists are fired up. >> my issue is not with the ticket. my issue is with you trying to squeeze the law to make it unsafe for drivers. >> reporter: fractions of a second can make a huge difference, according to research cited by the federal highway administration. increasing yellow time can dramatically reduce red-light running. running red lights is big money in states like florida. research shows red light cameras generated more than $100 million last year in florida alone. even state legislators say the department of transportation needs to pump the brakes on their newly reduced yellow lights. >> if they changed it without legislation, they ought to be

able to fix it without legislation. and i would be willing to bet that they're getting some phone calls about that today. >> reporter: in new hampshire, a different type of traffic jam. the city of keene is suing six members of a group called robin hood and his merry men who save people from parking infractions that put coins in parking meters that are about to expire. the robin hoods are taunting meter people. wouldn't taunting be what paul newman did in "cool hand luke" so what do we have here? >> what we've got here is failure to communicate. >> reporter: one thing's for certain, no one likes getting a ticket. and parkers in keene, new hampshire, are no doubt seeing red, just not as fast as people in florida. >> we should say that parking officers in keene say the members of the robin hood group are doing more than just putting money in meters. they claim they're being followed, harassed and verbally abused while doing their jobs.

the group says they're just talking to the officers. >> it seems unfair if they're changing these times and it's $158 per ticket? >> crazy. right? >> at least you've enlightened us. >> just a little. the video you need to see today. it is incredible. from over to the tv set. it's a terrifying scene in a subway station in philadelphia. this is a. officially your worst nightmare, ladies. a 14-month-old baby girl in a stroller rolling off the platform and on to the tracks. this that we're showing you right now surveillance video. you see what a mother does. she was standing on the platform when the stroller just happened to go on the tracks. she lept on to the tracks. she grabs her baby. she hands it over to a man that is standing on the platform. and the child is doing well. suffered four head lacerations and is being treated in an area hospital, but alive this morning thanks to mom jumping to action there. can you imagine? >> amazing. >> the moment that that happens

and thank goodness there was not a train coming. >> first the horror and then the courage. amazing pictures. coming up, new details this morning on the house of horrors in cleveland. allegation that the suspect singled out one of the victims as his personal punching bag. honoring the first responders who helped free those women from captivity. we are back in a moment. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios ♪ the one and only, cheerios when ouwe got a subaru.s born, it's where she said her first word. (little girl) no! saw her first day of school.

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welcome back. new revelation this morning about the three victims in the horrific cleveland kidnapping case. >> we now know two of the girls have remaineded in contact since they were rescued. both are in decent health and adjusting to their freedom quickly. >> the first responders were honored yesterday in an emotional ceremony. pamela brown is in cleveland with detail on that. good morning. >> good morning, john. for the first time the city of

cleveland were able to hail their first responders as heroes for rescuing these girls. the first responders one by one shared their emotional stories. they talked about that unforgettable moment when the girls rushed into their arms. they talked about the emotional highs and lows, the feelings of happiness and sadness for what they went through. and also the excitement of finding the girls after so many years searching for them. here's what officers michael tracey and anthony espada had to say about that. >> seeing her poster down the halls here and there. and i think all of us in the second district on the west side have seen those fliers. we've all gone to house where's there's a kid, dead angle. we still follow them up. take all of them serious. it was just amazing to see her there peering through the window. >> one of the first persons they saw in 10 or 12 years. so just very emotional.

again, just took everything to hold it together. >> and the first responders say they're not the heroes, the girls are the heroes. and we have learned this morning that they are bouncing back and enjoying their new found freedom. we've learned that gina dejesus and michelle knight have talked on the phone once. gina dejesus has visited a salon for the first time since being released and also the girls are learning how to use a new technology, maybe not so new to us, but they're learning how to use technology like iphones for the first time. something they haven't seen ever until now. >> it's nice. a little sense of normalcy there, pam. we're also hearing from castro's daughter for the very first time. one of his daughters that is in jail. can you share what she said, because we're all shocked all the time when we hear that these girls were actually inside the house while he was holding these girls captive. >> she gets interesting.

emily castro spoke to a private investigator from indiana prison where she is an inmate and she shared how her father was able to keep this a secret. let's take a listen here. >> the upstairs was blocked off with a big bass speaker. so i figured that since he lived there alone so long that he didn't have any need for those. there's four bedrooms upstairs. he didn't have any need for them. so i just kind of like, i was like, can i, you know, sleep upstairs in my old bedroom. he said, no, because it's cold up there, it's blocked off, it's dusty. so i just was like, okay. >> what we heard there from emily castro is not unlike what we heard from castro's two lowers who martin sav vinlg interviewed that castro was able to keep this secret through manipulation. even though his family members did visit the home. he was clearly able to hide what

he had going on. back to you. >> at least we heard some bright and positive news from gina and amanda. we appreciate that this morning. ity, pamela brown. "early start" back right after this. changing the world is exhausting business.

with the innovating and the transforming and the revolutionizing. it's enough to make you forget that you're flying five hundred miles an hour on a chair that just became a bed. you see, we're doing some changing of our own.

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welcome to the new buffalo. welcome to the new buffalo. new york state is throwing out the old rule book to give your business a new edge, the edge you can only get in new york state. to grow our start your business, visit thenewny.com that is it for "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. we'll see you back here tomorrow. "starting point" begins right "starting point" begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is cnn breaking news. >> oh, no. oh, no. >> that is the sound, that is the sight of danger. our "starting point" this morning, breaking news. tornadoes tear through texas killing at least six people, injuring 100 others. homes flattened, neighborhoods gone. we are live on the ground there. first on cnn, their integrity has been questioned and they've been accused of living. now the two men responsible for

the independent state department review on the ben gghazi attack they demand a public hearing. plus, you still have a chance, the powerball still up for grabs and the jackpot perhaps will reach an eye-popping $475 million. good morning. i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans, thursday, may 16th. "starting point" begins right now. >> we do begin with the dangerous deadly tornadoes. outbreak overnight killing at least six people, more than 100 others injured in north texas. right now this morning, 14 people are missing. terrifying funnel clouds bearing down on the hardest hit area. that would be granbury, texas. that is where these six people were killed in a habitat for humanity neighborhood. most of the homes were destroyed. 120. victor blackwell is in granbury for us.